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Displaying items by tag: Final vessel

#PortHistory - Jeanie Johnston made history when at Dublin Port yesterday the tall ship floated out of its graving dock.

As the Irish Times writes the replica 19th century “Famine” ship is the last vessel to be worked on in the port’s graving dock as previously reported by Afloat. The dry-dock is being closed and filled in as part of the €230 million Alexandra Basin project.

The five-year project aims to allow larger ships to routinely call at Dublin, turn within Alexandra Basin and berth as far upriver as East Link Bridge.

Micheál Ó Cionna, who manages the Jeanie Johnston as a tourist attraction and museum, said the ship would return to its berth with Dublin Port tug assistance and would re-open later this week.

Mr Ó Cionna said the closure of the port graving dock emphasised the need for Minister for Heritage Heather Humphreys to save the last docks of this type in the Liffey area – on the Grand Canal Basin. For on this story click here.

Published in Dublin Port

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago